Socioeconomic factors influencing companies' siting in pollution havens from an environmental justice perspective in the context of South Korea

In South Korea, where industrialization and urban growth have unfolded in tandem, a distinctive form of Environmental Injustice (EIJ) has emerged. However, the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH), which can be understood as one manifestation of EIJ, has been discussed primarily from an economic-geographic perspective rather than through the lens of Environmental Justice (EJ). This study reinterprets PHH from an EJ perspective and examines how Korea-specific forms of EIJ differ from conventional EJ narratives. Using nationwide factory registry data and a zero-truncated negative binomial (ZTNB) regression model, the analysis reveals a dual structure consisting of a “privileged exposure paradox,” in which some risks remain in high-land-value capital and core hub regions, and the externalization of more severe risks to non-urban peripheral areas. These findings suggest that, in South Korea's state-led hub-centered growth process, Porter-type agglomeration mechanisms and PHH-type externalization mechanisms operate simultaneously. They also show that EIJ can no longer be explained solely as a concentrated burden on socioeconomically vulnerable groups, but must be understood as a more complex structure that also includes residual pollution exposure in relatively affluent areas.